Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-06-03

cedes him comprising twenty officers in
brilliant red uniform on horseback
few feet in their rear handsome squad
of Amazons follow composed Of their
wives and daughters. authorized by
custom to pass in review with
their fathers and husbands. When
the Governor places himself in
front of the troops the bands
strike up God Save the Queen"
the soldiers present arms, the officers
make the military salute, and the spec
tators, uncovered, remain silent and
motionless. A battery placed 1,50)
feet above their heads at the sum
nit of the north side of the rock
fires salvo to which all of the interior
batteries respond. After various
evolutions the troops return to the city
and deposit their arm in their barracks,
when they are at liberty to spend the
rest Of the day as they please. The
taverns are crowded, and the amount
of brandy swallowed is incalculable.
Mcalculable also the number of
"drunks' met with after dark on the
streets. For these there are special
provisions Each of the posts in the
city and on the rock is provided with
kind of sentry-box, and when a red
coat too much under the influence of
drink passes in 81 ght of one of these
posts the officer or sub-of1icer calls two
of his men, who lay hold of him with
out violence and guide his staggering
cps to the box where he is allowed to
sleep off the fumes of his brandy until
morning. The next day there are dis
tributed some fines and sentences in
the guard-house, and then every thing
resumes its usual course. Brandy is
the weakness of the English, and it
greatly increases the mortality of the
garrison. All that succumb die of the
same disease, kind of cerebral fever
that the English call rock fever, but
that the natives correctly call brandy
fever.
Every thing on this rock partakes of
the military One is awakened by the
sound of cannon each morning as soon
as the rising of the sun gives the signal
for the opening of the greet gate. The
same cannon ut sunset signals its clos
ing. These two tirings of gun are
always regular, but they are not the
only res that are heard in the course
of Il day or night, for everything that
happens /. out of the usual course,
whether on the rock or around the
rock, is signaled by a cannon. This
cannon. which became inevitably Il
companion of the existence of every
! one living on the rock, is in a battery
middle of its length, at the foot of a
mast from which flies a signal flag that
whenever the gun is fired, tells what it
is fired for. The most frequently it is
to warn the Spanish coast-guard out of
English waters. Sometimes it is fire
the signal Indicates its location.
Precautiore are so well taken,
and the pumps SO expedtiously
handled. that fire is very speedily
extinguished. Sometimes it is the
rock itself that burns. Though it is
bare, so to speak, II vegetation grows
!
the sun, for from April to November it
never rains in Gibraltar. Once or twic,
during the summer this growth take,
lire-probably through the carelessnes
of smokers. When this occurs the ex
citement is great, for the rock is scat
tered over with powder magazines, anc
water in large quantities, except at the
base of the rock, is hard to get. TIL,
entire garrison is sometimes employed
in fighting these fires for fofty-eigh
hours.
Gibraltar, besides its garrison o
1000 has 5000 inhabitants. For /
fortress of such small extent this
population is embarrassing. The
civilians are everywhere sacrificed to
the military. In the village and on the
rock the best places are occupied by
barracks. Every thing that serve tn,
needs Of defense. the health and com
fort of the troops, is admirably locke,
after. From top to bottom the rock is
furrowed with excellent roads, and il
the city the streets are marvellous
ly cleaned and well kept. The
sewerage system is perfect and ga
and water abound everywhere. Blu
the civil population is shut up in a yer.
restricted space, most of the houses ar
novels. whose existence is subject T.
the caprice of the military, for, abov
all, nothing must interfere with tn
firing of the batteries. Not a ney
building has. been constructed TO
twenty years, for all the available LAM
was built on long ago. These fifteel
thousand inhabitants, born on the roe
md called by the English rock scor
pions," are, according to law, subject
Of the British Government, as born o.
English soil. They have the right t
live where they were born. No on
can expel them, but everything is don,
to fetter the development of the civ
population, and, above all, to proven
the formation of foreign colony.